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July 01, 2019

The real danger to our society

When you you look up the definition for society, you will find two. I am alarmed that some people have trouble figuring out the difference between the two when they are tasked with governing a society.

noun

1. The aggregate of people living together in a more or less ordered community.synonyms: the community, the public, the general public, the people, the population

We elect people to govern us - our society. Our governments establish rules or laws and through the courts, police, fines and other mechanisms collect money (taxes, fees) and enforce rules and laws. As Americans, Canadians, or others, we often live multi-jurisdictional lives. There are federal, state, county, city and sometimes even more local authorities who to a greater or lesser extent govern our lives.

The problem we face at many levels is the people providing our governance have lost sight of focusing benefits equitably towards the whole of the community that elected them.

What gnaws at my soul is the undeniable fact many of the people governing us are looking out more for the people in their circle of friends than they are for the good of the greater community. The first thought that comes to my mind is a bunch of rich politicians passing a tax cut which benefits almost exclusively corporate donors and people who make more money than they know how to spend. The tax cut has blown up the deficit and fueled an orgy of stock buybacks but few others have gotten anything more than hollow words about a tax cut.

While you may or may not agree with my interpretation of the tax cuts, the same thought process leads us to two sets of rules- one for the insiders and another for the rest of us. A few years ago, I had the misfortune of watching a tainted HOA election that led to board operating behind closed doors for months. They had barely been elected when they started breaking by-laws. Within a month they had illegally given some lot owners passes on dues that were owed. It took a lot of work to cleanse this board's behavior and establish new rules so that theoretically it would not happen again.

This insider-outsider problem runs deep in our society. Most people who have worked in corporations know that how you are treated often depends more on who you know than how well you do your job. I have long argued for a new social contract between workers and corporations. In corporations this lack of understanding of the bigger picture often manifests itself in CEOs and their inside circle of friends walking away with most of the benefits and money. It is little different from government giving tax breaks to their rich friends and denying health care benefits because they cannot imagine any of their friends not having work-provided health care benefits. Maybe they should talk to the ever increasing army of contractors who have no benefits because companies do not have to provide them.

The same stuff happens at the local level, it is just not as apparent. When stuff happens behind closed doors, it is usually happening because the benefits of actions taken are targeted to a group smaller than the true greater society that actually should be the real focus of the benefits. It is unfortunate that bad behavior is often cloaked in language that appears to make it look good at first glance.

Some companies and governments have actually taken the wolf in a sheep's clothing metaphor to a level that is almost an art form. Many might remember Apple's "Think Different" advertising campaign. I recently saw one of the old posters that celebrated people who thought different and made a difference. You would be excused from drawing the incorrect conclusion that Apple as a company celebrated employees who thought different. The irony was that nothing could have been farther from the truth. Steve Jobs tolerated no dissent. If an employee stepped across the sometimes invisible boundaries, they were quickly shown the door. Apple's excessive secrecy was not the only example of Steve's iron rule. As a director, I was often tasked with presenting to high-level customers after Steve's product introductions. I also had to answer their questions even though the only information I had was what I had gleaned during the same presentation that Steve had just given to them. Sure there were boxes of literature with more information to be handed out but they were stamped with notices that you could be fired if they were opened before Steve's presentation was over. Then there was Steve's even more ridiculous policy of telling a few chosen customers (Friends of Steve) more information about unannounced products than Apple employees were ever told.

While you might argue that Apple has gone on to be a tremendously successful company, I would argue that Apple is a mere money machine today, mining the pockets of loyal customers who have seen prices rise precipitously and innovation drop off a cliff. A whole generation of innovators and leaders were driven from Apple because of Steve's malignant management practices and excessive secrecy. You will find those employees at high levels in many companies.

From government and corporations to your local society, secrecy and the willingness to have two sets of rules, one for the insiders and another for the rest of us is the rot that eats away at the ties that bind us.

No one should be above the laws or the rules that have been established to keep our society more or less ordered. Favoritism, selective enforcement of rules and declaring the rules don't apply to me have no place in a society that is supposedly functioning for the good of everyone. Claiming ignorance of the rules as justification for breaking them is the worst kind of self-delusion for government of any level. If you don't understand the rules and aren't willing to abide by them yourself, how can you expect anyone to have respect for you or abide by your rules.

Rules and laws were not developed to be convenient and optional for leaders. They were developed to help keep society functioning. Rules and laws broken by leaders eat away at the credibility of the leaders. Surely it is apparent that leaders breaking rules makes it seem okay for others to ignore rules.

If we have learned nothing else in the last few years, it is that talk is cheap and more of a distraction than a promise that will be fulfilled. Transparency, government for the good of us all, and working to bring us all together are far too often hollow words that mask secret agendas designed more for the benefit of a group of buddies than to build a real community.

What really matters is a deep abiding respect for all people, especially the ones you are tasked with governing or leading. The first step to good governance or leadership is following and respecting the rules. Changing rules and traditions for a friend or colleague is a slippery slope than benefits few people and harms the greater good. Treating everyone fairly is the cornerstone of good governance and corporate life. Favoritism is a cancer that is hard to root out. The personal agenda that comes with favoritism is at odds with the common good and will destroy a community or a company.

While you can leave a company, it is much harder to leave a community. If for no other reason than that, we should be ever vigilant to make sure government at all levels can be counted on to follow the rules and treat everyone fairly.